By IANS,
New Delhi : Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav Tuesday termed the allegations of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that three of their MPs had been bribed to make them abstain from voting in the trust vote as a “conspiracy”.
“It is a conspiracy. This is all to divert the attention of the country,” Mulayam Singh told reporters after three BJP MPs flashed wads of notes in the Lok Sabha, alleging that they were offered Rs.10 million ($250,000) by Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh to abstain or vote for the government.
He said the BJP has “tarnished the image of the parliament”.
“Do thieves, killers and goons, when they go to the court, do they confess their crimes? They have just given a lot of lies. This is all a fraud,” he said.
He was emphatic that the incident would not “impact” the trust vote.
An angry Amar Singh said: “I don’t know how many people come to my house everyday. I don’t remember them and I have not met them or talked to them before. They have no evidence to show that Amar Singh paid them money.”
“I am not a weak player. I am a big fish. I know what is the idea behind this move. They have blamed Ahmed Patel (Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary) so that they could target Sonia Gandhi. They have named me so that they could hit Mulayam Singh,” he said.
“Why had they come? Were they ready to be bought? Were they political prostitutes ready to be bought?” he asked sarcastically.
The Rajya Sabha MP asked whether it was written on the wads of notes that it was paid by Amar Singh. “Is there any evidence from which bank I have withdrawn the money? Who had given the money? Why was police not called when the incident happened.”
“If I come with Rs.10 crore (Rs.100 million) and say it is paid to me by Advani, what is the proof? Has it been written on the money that it was given by Advani?”
“Are they (the three BJP MPs) such small timers that they were sold off for just Rs.1 crore (Rs.10 million).”